Wordless Wednesday

Birthday Craft!

I have a friend that just turned thirty.  And she's the type that's hard to get something for.

Now, thirty is a pretty significant birthday milestone and my friend was getting a little depressed.  I mean, it is the start of a new decade.  Heck, I'll probably be bawling my eyes out when I turn 3-0. 

Anyway, I saw this idea all over the internets and thought it would be perfect. 

My supplies:

-tissue box

-postage paper

-tissue paper

-Styrofoam block (cut to fit the box)

-30 Tootsie pops

-birthday message

-1 bamboo skewer

-tape

So it's pretty self-explanatory how I did this.  You're smart enough to figure it out...

And it turns out, my friend loves Tootsie Pops (well, that's what she said anyway).  So, in the end, we both win!  She gets her suckers, I get satisfaction from someone liking their gift and got my crafty urge out of my system.  Winning.

Friday Favorites

Favorite Stick Figure Family Sticker.  Those stick figure family decals irritate me.   But this one I wouldn't mind.

Favorite Alma Mater Shirt.  Although I've never been into the whole Harry Potter phenomena, it 's still pretty cool my alma mater is selling these shirts.

Favorite Ice Cubes via Amazon.  These would be pretty fun for your drunk friends.

Favorite Fox Face Baby Booties via Stella McCartney.  Whoa on these cute booties.  Adorables.

Favorite Toilet Paper Art.

Favorite Halloween Makeup via Charmed Tasha.  She's a generic comic book character.  Genius!

Favorite Uni-Scooter? via Ryno Motors.  I wonder if it's better than the Segway.

Favorite Adult Slide.  Umm, this'll be the first addition  to my house once I buy one.

Favorite Math Joke.  Tis true.....

Favorite Storm Trooper Travel Mug via LennyMud Etsy.  Yes, please!

The Dog's Dignity

  

This adorable little dog lost some of her dignity the other day.

Apparently, Gypsy has a thing for a certain stranger's butt crack.

Yes, you read that right.

When taking her out, there was a guy smoking and talking on his cellphone, and unfortunately, his pants were a little low and he was showing a tad too much.  Anyway, while bringing the dog back inside, during the process of unlocking the door to the building, there was slack on her leash and she was found with her nose in this poor guy's exposed butt crack.  And it took some effort to pull her away.  The poor sap with my dog in his behind didn't do anything but make a face.  Perhaps he was just too bewildered with the fact that a random dog had her snout in his butt. 

Sometimes, Gypsy is utterly embarrassing...and disappointing at times.  But, ("but,"  hahahahaha!!!) she is a great source of entertainment.  Although, embarrassing at first, it turned awkward, then hilariously funny. 

And if that guy lives in our building, we're bound to see each other again.  He'll see the dog, then either me or the BF.  And all he can do is walk away.  Seriously, who wants to relive a moment in time when this creature had her wet nose in your butt?  Just walk away and don't make eye contact...



Recipe Review: Mini Butterfinger Cheesecakes

Not only do I have butter fingers (it's true, stuff falls out of my hands ALL THE TIME), but I love Butterfinger chocolate bars.  Chocolate, peanut butter and Bart Simpson equals a great combination.  Then add cheesecake into the mix and I have myself a delicious after dinner dessert... or after work snack...

or breakfast...

The original recipe from Favorite Family Recipes called for a mini muffin pan, which I don't have and didn't want to buy.  I ended up increasing the baking time to account for me using a regular muffin pan. 

Mini Butterfinger Cheesecakes
from Favorite Family Recipes

For the crust:
1 c crushed vanilla wafers
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp butter
pinch of salt

For the cake:
8 oz softenend cream cheese
1/4 c creamy peanut butter (I used about 1/2 cup because I wanted more peanut butter taste)
1/2 c sugar
1 egg
2 tbsp heavy cream
pinch of salt
4 fun size Butterfinger bars, crushed

For the topping:
1 c semi-sweet chocolate chips
2  fun size Butterfinger bars, crushed

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Mix together the wafer crumbs, sugar, butter and salt in a bowl.  Press the mixture onto the bottom of each cup of the muffin tin.  Bake for 10 minutes.

Reduce the oven to 300 degrees.  Beat the cream cheese and peanut butter until smooth.  Beat in the sugar, egg, cream and salt until it's all well combined.  Slowly stir in the crushed Butterfingers.  Pour the batter evenly over the baked crusts.  Bake for 20-30 minutes or until the cheesecakes are set (mine were done after about 30 minutes with a regular muffin tin).  Let them cool for about 2 hours and remove them from the pan.

Melt the chocolate chips until smooth.  Spoon the melted chocolate over the cheesecakes and sprinkle the crushed Butterfingers over top.

The BF, who doesn't like Butterfingers, even ate some.  He said he left me the majority of the cheesecakes because he knows I like Butterfingers.  It was his subtle way to say he didn't care for them.  Oh well, more for me!

And apparently, the dog and cat even like Butterfingers.  I came home to this.

Here's how I think it went down. 

I leave for the store.  Cat jumps up on counter (where he knows he's not allowed).  Walks around on counter, including my food prep space, looking for something to scavenge (we think it's the "hunt" for him).  Cat finds candy bars in bag.  Cat sticks head into bag.  Cat manages to pull out two candy bars (whether at once or not, who knows).  Cat drops them from his mouth onto kitchen floor.  Dog hears something fall onto floor.  Dog goes to kitchen to investigate.  Cat jumps off from counter to get to candy bars.  Dog sees Cat show interest in candy bars.  Dog runs to candy bars, grabs them in her mouth and brings to living room.  Dog proceeds to rip open the wrappers and eat both candy bars.  Dog growls at Cat while he tries to approach.  Dog sniffs the carpet for candy bar crumbs.  Dog jumps onto couch and falls asleep until I get home.  Cat approaches the candy bar wrappers for any leftover crumbs.  Cat walks away and carries on with his day.  Cat and Dog hear the front door open.  Cat runs under the bed and hides because he knows he's in trouble.  Dog wakes up and tries to hide under couch blankets.  Owner is impressed Dog ripped open the wrappers and didn't eat them.  Owner thinks Dog is genius.  Dog will now probably get an upset stomach and diarrhea.  Cat will probably jump on the counter again to chew on something, just to spite us.  The end.

R.I.P: Cedar Point's Space Spiral

I was a little heartbroken earlier this week.  An icon from the summers of my early twenties came crashing (literally) down. 

When I was in college, I spent my summers working at Cedar Point (America's Rockin Roller Coast!).  The actual work was sometimes grueling, and embarrassing, and some dignity may have been lost, but those were some of the best summers I had.  When I explain about my summers there, the person I'm talking to usually looks back at me with a face that says, "Really?  Working at what sounds like a labor camp doesn't sound appealing at all.  Why would anyone work there?"  And that person would have a valid point.  Yes, I'd work 60+ hours a week outside, in the hottest temperatures of the year, but those 60+ hours a week were spent with your best friends.  That's what made the whole job worthwhile.  Working there helped me make friends with people I never would've met otherwise.  We were all stuck in the same place, doing pretty much manual labor, why not make the most of it and have fun?  Once the work day was over, everyone would party, live it up, go to sleep, work 12-14 hours, then, party again.

One of the summers, I worked with my best friend from home, at a ferris wheel.  It was the "Giant Wheel Triangle" because there were two additional rides:  Troika, a spinning ride, and the Space Spiral, an observation tower of sorts.  Our jobs were to pretty much run the rides. They weren't the most thrilling of rides, but hey, we still got our share of fun.   But seeing Space Spiral go down brought up all those fond memories of not only that summer, but of all my Cedar Point summers.

I have so many stories from those days.  I'm sure I have enough content for a full book, which I was seriously considering doing.  It would've been called, "Secrets of a Carny," or something along those lines.  I could write a full chapter just about the different types of vomit I've seen or about the park guests that get upset because a ride is closed due to weather or that the line is too long.  And I'm sure at some point, I'll share those stories, whether it be a little at a time or all at once.

But for now, I'll end it with this video of Space Spiral imploding to make room for a new roller coaster, which does look really awesome by the way.  It's shown on the video after Space Spiral falls.  And I guess if you have to go, then this is the way to do it. 

 

 

Wordless Wednesday

Recipe Review: Huli Huli Chicken

Hawaii.  Sigh.

The BF and I took a vacation to Maui back in 2009.  Our mind has been there since.  Besides being in complete paradise, the best part of the vacation was the Hawaiian food.  Yum yum in my tum tum. 

Although I never had a chance to try Huli Huli Chicken in Hawaii, I was excited nonetheless to try to make it on my own.

I'm so happy I did.  First off, the ingredients are available and easy to find and second, a majority of the work is done in the crockpot.  Easy peasy.

I ended up using two pounds each of party wings and drumsticks.

Fall off the bone tender these were.  And they weren't even as messy as you think they'd be.

Ok.  Well, I guess I should take away the "easy peasy" comment from earlier.  The beginning and end of the recipe is a little involved.  But it's worth it!

You can follow the recipe exactly, or you can eyeball it, which is what I did.  I used less ketchup, and more brown sugar.


Huli Huli Chicken
from America's Test Kitchen

2/3 c pineapple juice
1/2 c packed brown sugar
1/2 c ketchup
1/4 c soy sauce
6 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp grated ginger
salt and pepper
cooking spray
4 lbs bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces

Simmer pineapple juice, brown sugar, ketchup, soy sauce, garlic, and ginger in saucepan until thickened and measures about 1 1/2 cups.  It took a little over 10 minutes for me.  Season with salt and pepper.

Coat the slow cooker with cooking spray.  Transfer about 1/2 - 2/3 cups of the sauce to the slow cooker.  Put aside the rest of the sauce, you'll need it later!  Season the chicken with salt and pepper and add to the slow cooker and coat the chicken with evenly with the sauce in the crockpot. Cover and cook the chicken for 4-6 hours on low.

Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 450 degrees.  Place a wire rack in an aluminum foil lined baking sheet and coat with cooking spray.  Transfer the chicken to the baking sheet.  Discard the braising liquid in the crockpot (hope you didn't use much!).

Brush the chicken with the sauce you put to the side and bake, brushing every couple of minutes with more sauce, until the chicken has a nice mahagony lacquer.  I baked mine for about 30 minutes.

Serve and make your tummy happy!

Comics, Burritos and the Amish: Part II

Continued from Part I.

After finding 2 new places we were feeling adventurous.  Near Baja Fresh there was an REI.  I've heard alot about that place, so I had to go in.  Although a great store, I still prefer Bass Pro Shop, just out of the utter size.  There's more things to look out.  But since it's a place that will take money from a shopaholic, I gladly contributed to their corporate profits and added to my wardrobe :)

 

To continue on our adventure bug, the BF and I went back home a different way.  And if we never would've went this way we wouldn't have discovered these two places:  1) ANOTHER Baja Fresh, which I think is a little unfair that there were 2 locations near one another, when there isn't even one close to us anymore... and 2) a Pennsylvania Dutch Market, which is a smorgasbord of little shops operated by mainly the Pennsylvania Dutch inside this big building. 

 

Despite having just eaten a large lunch, the smells in the Dutch Market made me want to eat everything.  As soon you walk in, there's a stand for roasted nuts.  O.M.G.  Then there's a shop for donuts...right across another shop for baked goods.  They had shops for amish made furniture and jewelry and crafts.  The meats looked really fresh and the produce were down right obscene with how good they looked.  There were tables, so you could grab some lunch from one of the shops and eat it there.  But I think my favorite out of the whole place was their collection of sprinkles.  OMFG.  Now back in July, I had an exhausting experience with finding red, white and blue sprinkles.  Well, if I had known about this little mecca (is that okay to say since this is an Amish market?) my efforts wouldn't have been wasted.  Every single color, every type of sprinkle, and every holiday/season/occasion.  And there were bulk packages of the common baking ingredients (sugar, flour, corn syrup, chocolate, etc).  Who would've thought that the Amish is serious about their desserts.

 

Despite being full to my wits with burrito, we had to go home with something.  Chocolate chip cookies, donuts and whoopie pies.

 



 

 

 

 

The donuts and cookies were so different than what we were used to.  I'm sure the Amish ones are less processed and with simpler ingredients.  And the whoopie pies were amazing.  They reminded me of homemade versions of Oreo cakesters.  Nom, nom.

 



 

Friday Favorites



Favorite K-Pop Music Video.  Holy cow, I love this so much.  I just keep watching it over and over :)

 

Favorite Quote.  'Nuff said.

 

Favorite Feline Gymnast.

Favorite Button Sweatshirt via JCrew.

Favorite Polka Dot Racerback via a thread.

Favorite Mug Shot.  Maybe you've been wearing your baseball cap too long...

Favorite Math Humor Onesie via geeklingdesigns etsy.  I love math humor...

Favorite Dip Dye Pillows via Bright Bazaar.  If I was rich and had a beach house, these would fit perfectly.

 

 

Comics, Burritos, and the Amish: Part I

It's not very often the BF and I get the same days off, maybe once or twice a month.  So because of that, we like to do mini adventures.  And this particular mini adventure is actually a two parter!  But that's only because I have alot to say and I don't want to have a really long post...

The BF had heard about and researched this comic book store not too far away from us.  Although I'm not a big comic book reader, I was game to check this place out.  And I'm so happy we did.  After coming to this place, I want to start collecting graphic novels and comics (the books, not the thin papers).  I think just about every single comic ever made is carried in the store.  There were vintage toys that I haven't seen in years.  There were vintage comic tshirts that I would seriously wear.  It's a nerd's mecca!  And for the really nerdy, there's even rooms dedicated to Dungeons and Dragons and Magic the Gathering Tournaments (neither of those I don't understand and don't think I'll ever get into...it's just too weird...)

Our meter was running so we didn't have too much time to explore the place before we had to move the car, but we'll be back... 

 

 

On the same day, we also went on a hunt for the elusive Baja Fresh.  You see, this used to be our go-to place for mexican in our neighborhood.  We felt it was classier than Taco Bell, but still cheap.  Whenever I didn't want to cook and we were stumped on what to eat, we'd end up at Baja.  It was amazing.  Well, back in February, we show up and EVERYTHING is gone.  The only thing standing was the sign at the top of the building and a sign on the door that read, "Closed."  We honestly thought it was a sick joke and I got on my phone to scour the internet for answers.  Well, it turned out the reason for their closure was due to high rent or something along those lines.  Damn inflation!!  And to top it off, our favorite sushi place closed down, and then our 3rd go-to changed their menu and prices for the worst.  What are we to do!!??  And that's where we went on the hunt.  Baja Fresh wasn't actually that far from where were at the comic store.  You'd think we just saw a lake in a desert if you'd have seen our faces. 

 

 

It's complete torture for me to look at the picture of the (I think it's crack coated because its so damn good and I can't stop eating it until it's gone!) food.

 

Stay tuned for Part Dos in the near future!  It involves the Amish!!